If you are starting to feel like the letters CBD follow you everywhere you go, then you’re probably not dreaming.CBD has been the buzziest chemical within the wellness industry since 2018’s Hemp Farm Act, which legalized hemp-derived products. CBD is available in various places, including Amazon, health food, and pet shops. Some cafes even offer CBD-infused juices or coffees.

Does CBD work as well as it claims? CBD has been described as a drug capable of treating all kinds of chronic pain. However, there are many more complicated issues. There is very little evidence to support CBD’s effectiveness and even less approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for specific health claims CBD Gummies. So where do you go? You might wonder if you should believe the hype.

CBD is a chemical component found in cannabis. It can be found in many flowering plants, including hemp and marijuana. Another compound in cannabis is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol–better known as THC. It’s responsible for making someone feel “high” after they smoke a joint or eat a pot brownie.

Some cannabis plants may not be able to get you stoned. Because different cannabis varieties have different levels of THC or CBD, this is because they are all chemically different. Marijuana has high levels of THC. While hemp naturally contains very little THC, it does contain a lot of CBD.

Theoretically, CBD can be used to relieve many ailments. Because it interacts with an essential human body system, the endocannabinoid system regulates cognition. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that communicate with the body. They tell cells, tissues, organs, and cells what to do. CBD may alter the way these signals are transmitted. This interaction, experts believe, may result in CBD’s numerous effects on everything.

CBD has seen a lot of popularity in recent years. This is due to the wide variety of research, tons of anecdotal evidence, and word-of-mouth phenomenon that suggests it may be beneficial for treating several health conditions.

Here’s the catch, and it’s a huge one: Most studies on cannabis have been conducted in animals or a lab. Ziva Cooper, Ph.D., is the director of UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative and Associate Professor at the Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior. Few studies have been done on living, breathing people. Cooper, a scientist, is still trying to determine how such studies can be translated into the real world.

To date, very few reliable, large-scale studies on humans prove or disprove CBD’s benefits for any medical condition. “CBD for pain has been the focus of only two placebo-controlled, double-blind studies,” she said. “This is amazing considering how many people use cannabis for pain.”

Jordan Tishler, M.D., president of the Association of Cannabis Specialists and medical cannabis provider at inhaleMD in Cambridge, MA, states that “definitive evidence” is that CBD can be used to treat children suffering from rare seizure disorders. Epidiolex (cannabidiol) is the drug. It works by interfacing and calming down neurons in the brain that could otherwise fire out of control and trigger seizures.